


Black Eyes and Bad Dreams

by goth_on_ham



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Birthday, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-09-22 17:23:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9617741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goth_on_ham/pseuds/goth_on_ham
Summary: (and Birthdays)Harvey thinks he must be crazy to let Oswald Cobblepot spend the night, but Oswald is just out of Arkham and has nowhere else to go.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is made from two prompt fills I did. The pairing was Harvey x Nicewald and they were 'Black eye' and 'Hey, hey, calm down. They can't hurt you anymore.'  
> I decided to put them together, sorry if it seems a bit disjointed.

“Hey, Harv. We got a guy saying he wants to see you.” 

Harvey groaned and reluctantly got out of his chair. “What about?” 

“He didn’t say.”

“Did he give his name?”

“Yeah, Oswald Cobblepot.” The younger officer chuckled a little, clearly he knew a bit about the infamous gangster and previous ‘King of Gotham’. 

“You’re kidding…” 

—

Oswald was sitting anxiously, trying not to pay any attention to the way the officers all stared at him. He couldn’t really blame them, it must be strange for them to see him here willingly after he had done so many bad things. 

“Hey, Penguin!”

He turned around as he heard Bullock’s familiar voice come from a short distance away. He smiled, a little awkwardly, and gave the man a small wave. 

“Christ, look at you. I barely recognised you without your fancy-pants suits.” 

It was true. He looked pretty different in his oversized winter coat, overly worn sweater, and black bobble hat. But they were warm, and warmth was more important than style when you didn’t know if you would have a roof over your head. 

“It’s good to see you, Detective Bullock. I know that you’re a busy man, but I just wanted to come by and say hello… And apologise too.” He saw that Harvey was confused, so he continued. “I wanted to apologise for my awful behaviour in the past. You had to put up with a lot of it, and I wanted to say that I’ve changed, and that you won’t have to deal with that any longer.’

“Uh huh…” Harvey nodded slowly, clearly taken aback by the stark change in Oswald’s character. It was a bit freaky. Professor Strange must be a miracle worker. However, there was something besides Oswald’s behaviour that caught his attention. He pointed at the other man’s face, “What’s with the black eye?”

“Oh!” Oswald had nearly forgotten about that. “Um… I…” He fumbled for his words, and Harvey smirked to himself.

“Getting into fights already, eh, Penguin? You almost had me tricked there.” 

“No, I swear! I just… I bumped into some other old friends, and they weren’t too happy to see me.” He explained, spreading his hands in front of him and looking at Harvey imploringly, hoping that he would believe him. “I’ve not been doing anything bad since I was released. Honestly!”

‘I’ve not been doing anything bad.’ The guy sounded like a kid or something. 

“Fine, fine. I’ll believe you.” 

“Thank you.” Oswald took a deep breath of relief. 

“Hey, Smithy! Get me an icepack from medical or somewhere, okay?” Harvey called over to one of the junior officers, the young woman nodded and went off, not in too much of a hurry. 

Oswald tilted his head in confusion. 

“You want a coffee or something?” Harvey offered. “It tastes like warmed up crap but you look freezing.”

“Um, no… Thank you. That’s kind of you to offer.” Oswald smiled politely. He had to admit, he wouldn’t have been completely surprised if Harvey had given him a second black eye. He had always seemed like he wanted to sock him when they’d met in the past. He felt like he must have misjudged him. He was a good man.

The officer returned with the icepack and before Oswald could ask what it was for, Harvey sat down beside him and pressed it to his swollen eye. He squeaked in alarm at the sudden cold.

“Hold that there, and stay till the bad weather passes. The rain’ll just soak right through that coat.” 

“That’s… You don’t need to be so kind to me.” Oswald gulped, suddenly feeling a pang of guilt at how nice the detective was being. After he had been nothing but trouble to him in the past. 

“It’s no problem. You look after yourself, alright? I’ve got to go grab lunch. I’ll be back in a bit.” He patted Oswald on his shoulder and got up from the chair. Part of him wanted to ask the smaller man questions. He was curious, and suspicious, about Hugo Strange and Arkham, but he could tell that Oswald wouldn’t want to talk about that.

“Thank you, detective.”

Harvey nodded in acknowledgment and left the other man where he was. He wondered if he should get him a sandwich or something from the vending machine. He looked like he’d lost weight.

—

Harvey thought that he must be insane. Reformed or not, this was still Oswald Cobblepot. The Penguin. The previous King of Gotham and all-around bad egg.

But he had nowhere to go. 

He was like a stray puppy or something, and Harvey had always had a weakness for strays. When he’d been a kid, he’d brought home more mutts and alleycats than he could count. His parents had never let him keep them, but he could never just walk past and leave them, all wet and shivering in the gutter. The years may have made him more cynical, but he was still that kid at heart.

“I’m truly grateful, Detective Bullock.” Oswald said for about the hundredth time, ducking his head in a meek bow as he entered Harvey’s humble abode. 

It was what anyone might expect his home to look like. Messy, disorganised, with paperwork and food packets spread over nearly every flat surface. However, it was surprisingly spacious and had a good view of the city.

“I know it isn’t anything fancy, but it’s home.” The somewhat pudgy older man commented. He threw his coat over the back of a chair, followed by his hat. “You want a beer or something?”

“Um…” Oswald hesitated. He was still standing right beside the door and he looked nervous about coming in any further. It didn’t seem like he doubted Harvey’s sincerity or his kindness, but he did seem wary about something. “I don’t know if I should.”

“One beer isn’t gonna send you back into being a criminal.”

“No. No, uh… I didn’t mean that.” Oswald smiled apologetically. “It’s just… Are you sure that it’s okay if I stay here tonight? After everything I did to you, to Detective Gordon I-“

One of Harvey’s hands clamped down on his shoulder. It was a little too rough to be comfortable, but it was oddly reassuring. “It’s fine. Really.”

There was a silence between the two of them for a couple of moments, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Harvey broke it by patting him on the shoulder again, then he made his way to the kitchen to get the beer.

—

As Harvey lay back on the couch, not quite able to stretch out fully on the battered old piece of furniture, he found himself thinking about the guest that he’d given his bed to. 

Oswald was surprisingly decent company and it surprised Harvey that he found himself liking the little oddball. He wondered if that was just because of whatever had happened to him in Arkham, or if they would have gotten on okay beforehand too, if things had been different and they’d just happened to meet in a bar somewhere. 

He sighed deeply, trying to convince himself that such things weren’t worth thinking about. Life was how it was. Oswald had been a snitch who’d somehow wormed his way up to the top, only to be knocked back down again. He was a decent enough guy now, but only because Arkham had screwed with his head.

_“Aaah!”_

The scream seemed to shoot right through Harvey and he nearly fell off of the couch. Before he could stop to think about what could have caused it, he grabbed his gun and ran into the bedroom.

“Oswald! What is it? What happened?” The sight of him bursting into the bedroom in just a vest top and his boxers, brandishing a handgun, must have added to the younger man’s terror because he screamed again, his whole body shaking and his hands going up to cover his face.

Harvey quickly realised that there was no one else in the room with them, so it hadn’t been an intruder that had spooked Oswald. 

“I-I… I’m sorry, ah… I’m sorry…” Oswald was pressing his face into his hands and trembling like he had caught hypothermia. His breath was uneven, going between short, shallow gasps and deep, desperate gulps for air. “I’m sorry, I just- Please don’t hurt me!”

The older man put his gun aside, on the top of a chest of drawers, and cautiously walked forwards, his hands outstretched to show him that he had put down his weapon and didn’t mean any harm. 

“Look, Oswald… You must’ve had a bad dream or something. Just… Calm down-“

Oswald interrupted him, began babbling out apologies again, and Harvey couldn’t even follow what they were apologies for. For everything maybe.

He’d been told how to deal with people when they started freaking out like this, but he’d never paid attention to that part of the training. In his opinion, most hardened criminals didn’t start having panic attacks when confronted by cops, and the ones who weren’t hardened criminals… Well, he didn’t worry so much about them.

He’d just have to use his instincts.

“Oswald. Oswald, relax. It was just a bad dream, okay?” He tried to make his voice sound as gentle as it could go, but he was self conscious that it probably just sounded weird. “Take some deep breaths. There’s no one else here but you and me. They can’t hurt you anymore. You can chill.”

Oswald was still sobbing, but gradually, the shaking began to stop. Then his hands lowered from his face, instead wrapping around his legs to pull them up to his chest. 

“I’m sorry…” He sniffled, clearly still upset, but far less agitated. “I, I think I was having a bad dream.”

“No kidding.” Harvey felt himself relax a bit too. “You want to talk about it or something?”

“I can’t really remember it.” 

Harvey had a feeling that he wasn’t being entirely honest with him, but he decided not to press him on it. 

“That’s okay.”

He was about to say goodnight to him and head back into the living room, when he saw Oswald shift slightly and open his mouth a bit, like he wanted to tell him something but hadn’t quite worked up the courage yet.

“Could you stay for a while?”

“Huh?”

Oswald seemed to shrink at that response, and it kind of made Harvey feel bad. He hadn’t meant for it to come across as rude. “I don’t want to be alone… If, if you think it’s weird, I could just sit in the living room with you while you sleep in the couch.”

That was kind of a sad image. 

It  _did_  seem a bit weird to Harvey, but it was a wide bed, and Oswald looked so shaken up. Harvey could barely recognise him as the same guy who had stood by the sides of Falcone and Maroni and whispered cunning plans into their ears. 

“Alright, but no telling Jim about this.” He relented, telling himself, once again, that he must be insane.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got another Harvey/Nicewald prompt so decided to make it a small epilogue for this story. I hope that you like it. The prompt was 'a playful kiss'.

Harvey woke up the next morning to an empty bed. 

This didn’t surprise him at first, but after a few minutes of being awake, he remembered that he should have a certain former gangland kingpin by his side. 

“Crap.” He became worried. Oswald was messed up, vulnerable, and he had the horrible feeling that maybe the little guy had sneaked off on his own in the early hours of the morning. 

While he was an adult and entitled to leave if he wanted to, he and Harvey weren’t even really friends, the thought of Oswald leaving in his current state made Harvey more anxious than he would ever admit out loud.

He got out of bed, not bothering to pull on his pants or get a change of shirt yet. He opened the bedroom door to the smell of food being cooked. 

Oswald was standing at the cooker, frying eggs, when the sound of Harvey stumbling through caught him by surprise. He yelped in shock and quickly turned off the stove. 

“I-I’m sorry! I just… I thought, um… I-“

Harvey blinked in disbelief. Then he slowly began to approach Oswald and the smaller man took a couple of steps backwards. He clutched the frying pan tightly, the egg still sat in it and sizzling quietly. He looked so sheepish and guilty.

“Are you making me breakfast?” He asked, unable to hide how weird he found that.

“Yes… Um… I’m sorry if I was presumptuous.” 

Harvey took a few seconds to process that. 

“I just wanted to thank you for being so kind to me.” Oswald continued. He shifted slightly from foot to foot, and Harvey finally let out a soft snort of amusement.

“That’s really nice of you, Oswald” He admitted. He walked past him and grabbed a half empty bag of instant coffee from one of the kitchen shelves. “Thanks.”

Oswald seemed frozen to the spot until Harvey began making them both some coffee. Perhaps he finally accepted that Harvey wasn’t going to yell at him for  _presuming_  to make them breakfast. 

‘Poor guy, Arkham really messed with his head.’ Harvey thought to himself, as he ate the eggs Oswald had cooked. They were pretty good.

And he did feel bad for him, truly he did. Although he’d be lying if he said that this Oswald didn’t seem like a pretty decent roommate. 

‘That’s crazy.’ He thought, even if that didn’t stop him from thinking it.

—

One month later, and Oswald was still living with him. Harvey wouldn’t have it any other way. He joked that he needed to keep him where he could keep an eye on him. Really, he kept him around because he’d grown fond of him. 

It was weird, but it wasn’t bad.

Before going to work one morning, for some reason, he felt compelled to lean forward and give Oswald a brief, somewhat playful peck on the cheek. 

The smaller man flushed bright pink and Harvey had to resist the urge to do it again more seriously.

“See you later, Oswald.”

Oswald nodded and stammered out a goodbye. It was cute.

Yeah, it was weird having Oswald around. But it really wasn’t bad at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got another Harvey x Nicewald prompt ("Take a deep breath") so I decided to continue this with something short and fluffy that takes place after Oswald has been living with Harvey for a little while.

“Go on. Blow out the candles and make a wish.” 

Oswald shifted from side to side in his chair. He actually looked nervous, like he was worried he’d screw it up or something.

“Come on. I know you’re a small guy, but you’ve got enough air in you to blow out thirty or so little candles.” Harvey teased, giving him a playful knock on the shoulder.

“I’m not sure that I do,” Oswald replied with a slight whine, “And if I don’t blow them all out in one puff… It doesn’t count.”

Harvey chuckled. For someone who had once been a no-good gangster, Oswald held some rather childlike, innocent beliefs. Harvey wondered if he’d been the same before, if the ‘King of Gotham’ had also fretted about not getting his birthday wish because he couldn’t blow out the candles in one go.

“Want me to help?” He offered.

“Absolutely not, that _definitely_  means it wouldn’t count.” Oswald insisted, quite seriously.

“If you don’t hurry up, the candles are gonna start dripping wax on the cake.”

He was right. The pink and blue striped candles were already starting to sweat.

He had probably went a bit overkill. As well as making it look very crowded, thirty-two candles on a smallish chocolate birthday cake was a bit of a fire hazard. 

“Okay, okay. I’ll do it.” Oswald conceded, probably not wanting the chocolate frosting to be ruined with drops of brightly coloured candle wax.

“Take a deep breath.” Harvey instructed. He’d meant it as a tease, but Oswald did as he said, straightening his back and drawing in as much air as his diminutive frame could hold.

Thirty-two little flames danced and flickered as Oswald blew on them, before each of them was extinguished. Harvey applauded and patted him on the back heartily. 

“Well done! I knew you had it in you.” 

“I can’t believe I actually did it!” Oswald admitted, seeming inordinately pleased at the accomplishment. Harvey guessed that he hadn’t managed to blow out thirty-one candles last year.

Harvey cut the cake for him and gave Oswald the bigger slice (since it  _was_  his birthday). As they began to eat, he finally asked the obvious question.

“So… You gonna tell me what you wished for?”

Oswald’s cheeks went pink and he lowered his pale eyes towards the dark brown chocolate sponge, poking it with his fork. “It’s a secret.”

Harvey opened his mouth to protest.

“Besides, it won’t come true if I tell you.”


End file.
